The Eating Season

The French Christmas Menus

Paris:- Friday, 20. December 1996:- The
following list of festive foods may seem like extravagant
boasting, but food is one of the things for which France
is famous - so like other vices, there is no sense in
pretending it does not exist.

This week for the festive menus, I am providing
examples of two: the actual menu of the Hôtel de
Crillon, on the place de la Concorde; and a 'country
menu,' put together with ingredients from the little
supermarket across the street.

The hotel menu I have on hand. The 'country menu' is
pretty much the same as the dishes from last week's wine
list - also listed below - but I did not get around to
finding out exactly how much might be spent on it. For
the supermarket selection, I have two very colorful
brochures, containing all the goodies. I could go across
the street, but I will stay here and write this
instead.

The Crillon's 'Menu de Noêl 1996'

The Hôtel de Crillon has two restaurants,
L'Obélisque and Les Ambassadeurs. This is the menu
for Les Ambassadeurs. The price per person is 1,100
francs, not including drinks, but including all
taxes.

Each of these courses should be accompanied by its
appropriate wine - and the sommelier will provide
assistance with the choices.

The 'Country' and Supermarket Menu

This is the menu for Christmas Eve. Inez Timoney told
me that people living in the country were very particular
about all these festive meals, often planning them months
in advance as well as planning their
financement.

Since I do not have a 'country marché or
supplier' with me at the moment, I am going to mix what
Inez told me with the items in two colorful major
supermarket brochures. As with salmon below, those
residing in the countryside will have their very own,
often particular, suppliers.

Since people in France have pretty much the same
things year in and year out, sometimes a new or 'modern'
element is added. This could be a French version of 'Dips
a l'Americaine.' Since the sauces for these are not
available - except possibly in special shops in Paris -
the sauces are hand-made, with French ingredients; which
I suppose means, with garlic. Avocados are commonly
available and Roquefort cheese is native - but the
'American' idea adds a little 'frisson' to go with the
champagne.

Oysters come next, or smoked salmon, or both. Number
three Belons are cheapest at about 40 francs a dozen, but
oysters are often bought in three-kilo - or larger -
baskets, so you then get into kilo-prices - pay for the
shells! - and these run from 15 francs a kilo for
ordinary Normandy oysters, up to 23 francs a kilo for
'Fines de Claire' from Oléron.

Oysters come from different regions, there are
different types, there are different sizes within types -
with the most expensive being the ones that are 'fat.'
These can be a huge mouthful and very cold if served on
ice, and absolutely delicious, even if you are not
allowed to drink the fantastic wines that go with them.
Oysters are not cooked as a rule, and their seawater
taste gets washed away with dry white wine in total
harmony.

Smoked salmon is commonly available from Norway,
Ireland, Scotland and Canada or Alaska. For many of these
ingredients, the buyer knows a 'special source' - it
could be a direct importer - and instead of buying things
in supermarket packets, they are acquired in bulk.
Packaged salmon runs from 106 francs to just over 200
francs per kilo.

There are two types of large chickens called 'chapon.'
Industrial types run from 30 francs a kilo to 46.
Hand-fed luxo chapons can cost around 85 francs a kilo.
Fed on corn and sometimes milk, chapon live outside and
are specially fed for at least 100 days, and they are no
less than 150 days old when slaughtered. The best chapon
come from the central districts of the Landes,
Loué, Gers, Challans and Janzé. Chapons
sold in supermarkets carry labels like AOC and conformity
certificates. Inez estimated that a good chapon would
cost about 600 francs.

Turkeys are costing about 45 francs a kilo for
name-branded ones; goose is about 58 francs and large
ducks are 32 francs a kilo. Wild game meats are also
available

Cheese in France is - too much. There is a tremendous
variety and you can only get to know what you prefer by
trying a lot of it. Like everything else, cheese is
expensive, with kilo prices starting around the level of
turkey and going up to that of high quality or rare meat
- in the 150 franc per kilo range.

For the bûche - with which I am unfamiliar - you
can pay 45 francs for one with a mousse of fruits, for
four to six persons; or 40 francs for a chocolate one.
'Artisanale' ice cream ones are also about 40 francs -
but more elaborately confectioned ones are about 75
francs. I was offered a 'secret' recipe for a
bûche, but since it was several pages long I
declined it.

This should have come further up the list, but it is
so sickeningly extravagant, that I'll just pop it in
here. Foie Gras is something special invented no doubt by
the devil, because you can pay a modest amount for some
or you can pay up to 1,247.50 francs a kilo - not that,
at this price, it is sold by the kilo. It would be
crass.

Of course truffles are more expensive at 2500 francs a
kilo, but they are still outstripped by the kilo price of
caviar at about 3,000 francs - but caviar is not French,
is it?

The two brochures I am consulting are each about 40
pages long, including four pages for drink in one and
three in the other. There are so many other special
festive things to eat that if I try to fit them in here
I'll be at this all night, and possibly fall ill by
association.

Nuts, or 'fruits secs' are popular in France,
especially around the Mediterranean, but I don't find the
packaged versions are edible, and loose varieties sold on
markets always seem like second-class at best. Around
this time of year there is a new walnut crop and like a
lot of things in France, there are walnuts and there are
super-special fantastic walnuts!

I believe the ones I am thinking of come from
somewhere near the Pyrenees. I think I was also told that
farmers there who don't sell their entire crop, feed them
to pigs - but I have never seen pork advertised as having
been fed on walnuts - but, just think of it.

And that is what one does in France a lot - thinking
of food and what it tastes like. Especially at the end of
the year.